36. As Far As He Wanted
36
AS FAR AS HE WANTED
“ Y ou’re quiet,” he said a few hours later.
“No reason,” she said.
“Did you want more than just pizza for dinner?” he asked.
They’d ordered that with a salad and cheesecake for dessert. Simple in his mind, but it’s not like either one of them were fancy people.
“Nope,” she said. “This is more than I’ve done in years.”
Hyde didn’t like hearing that. Even when he didn’t come home for the holidays, he was with Shana or other friends.
“Do you wish you were alone?” he asked.
“No,” she said firmly. “And I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated with my mother’s call.”
He figured as much and hated that for her.
“You took care of it,” he said. “She won’t be on the streets.”
She snorted. “Not this month. I wonder if it will ever end. Probably not.”
“Some kids never grow up. Your mother could be one of those people. Sounds like she always had someone taking care of her. And still does. If you didn’t do this today, what do you think she would have done? Do you think she would have packed up all her things and driven here? Or would she have found a way to store them or come up with the money?”
“You know, when you say it that way, I think she would have sold some things to get the money and if she still couldn’t then she’d borrow it from a friend or maybe even go stay at a friend’s place for a bit. She might even have put it on a credit card just piling up her debt.”
“Not telling you what to do,” he said. “But maybe if you cut her off she’d have to figure it out more.”
Tori sighed. “I don’t know. I’m not sure it’s worth that chance. She honestly hasn’t had this happen in years. If she hadn’t been fired she would have been fine or at least close to fine. I’ve got her bills set up for her, but she does stupid shit.”
“Like we’ve all done in life,” he said.
“Yes,” she said. “And I don’t want to talk about her anymore. Let’s open gifts if you don’t mind. Or are you one of those people who has to wait until Christmas morning to see if Santa came or not?”
“Santa stopped coming for me years ago,” he said, smiling.
“The same,” she said. “We can have our dessert when we are done.”
“That works,” he said, putting their empty plates in the dishwasher while she wrapped up the remains of their dinner.
They moved to the tree, sat down, and pulled out the few gifts they’d bought for each other.
He wanted to push his boundaries and get her more than what they’d agreed on but decided maybe it wasn’t worth another fight to go as far as he wanted.
Even when they were getting along they still butted heads.
“Here,” she said. “Open it.”
He pulled the first box in front of him, ripped off the paper, and then lifted a purple golf shirt with white stripes on it.
“Nice,” he said, holding it up in front of him.
“You look good in purple,” she said. “And you can wear it the next time you play with your boss and Ryder.”
He laughed. “Perfect. They are always stylish and I just grab whatever is the first thing my hand lands on in the closet.”
He nudged his box to her and she opened it. “UGG slippers. You remembered.” She was all but bopping while she sat on the floor.
“I did,” he said, laughing at her. She was wiggling now and pulling them out of the box.
She’d said that she always wanted a pair and always ended up with the cheap or generic ones. That she couldn’t bring herself to buy the real ones.
“These cost more than what we said we were going to spend,” she said, lifting an eyebrow, but she was slipping the caramel-colored suede on her feet and kicking her toes up to admire them.
“So?” he said. “It’s worth it and they look really cute on you.”
More like ridiculous with her black leggings that she changed into. They were so fitted to her body and the slippers were big and bulky, almost like clown shoes.
But she was happy and that was the only important thing.
“They do,” she said. “Silly, I know, but still cute. Here, open this one and then your stocking.”
He reached for the gift bag and pulled out a dark green fleece jacket. “I like this a lot,” he said. “I needed a new one. My last lightweight jacket has seen some years.”
“I noticed,” she said. “And you normally look really good, but that jacket is probably from college.”
He laughed. “It is,” he said. “I never think to buy jackets because I don’t wear them much.”
“Now you’ve got one,” she said simply.
He handed her a little gift bag before they opened their stockings. It was his idea to do them because he wanted to fill it with fun things.
One of those childhood memories he had that he wanted to give her knowing she might not have had many growing up.
She pulled out the red and green glitter paper. “Fancy,” she said. “Or did someone else put this together for you?”
“I did it,” he said, tweaking her toe. Not that she felt it in her silly slippers. “Don’t I get any credit?”
“You do,” she said. “Hyde. These are beautiful and too much.”
“Be happy they aren’t the ones I wanted to get so you didn’t yell at me.”
The silver dangle earrings had a solid teardrop hanging from them. She wore a lot of things like that. Classic simple pieces that would go with anything.
The pair he wanted to get her had a diamond hanging and were white gold.
Yeah, too soon, he knew that.
He watched as she swapped out her earrings for the new ones and then got up and went to the mirror by her door and pushed her light brown hair out of her way to see them.
“They are stunning,” she said. “And exactly my style.”
“I’m glad,” he said. “Now we can open our stockings. That’s the best part of Christmas to me.”
“I always thought stockings were fun,” she said.
When they were done pulling everything out, they both had socks and deodorant, Chapstick, toothbrushes, candy and cologne for him, perfume for her.
“How funny that we pretty much got each other the same things.”
“I thought so,” she said. “Come here.”
He scooted over to where she was on the floor and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Happy?” he asked.
“Very,” she said. “What do you think about watching a Christmas movie? If it’s corny we don’t have to, but I always do.”
“We can do that,” he said. “How about we do it in bed?”
“Even better,” she said. “With cheesecake!”
In the middle of the night, Hyde turned over and put his arm around Tori. He was exhausted in the most content way possible.
Between the woman he loved and the happiness he’d seen on her face opening gifts, then to her all but attacking him in bed, he wanted to snuggle her close and never let go.
When her ass pushed back into his crotch, he felt his dick growing, but he was still in a sleep haze.
His hand moved under her shirt as if on automatic, touching the soft skin at her belly, then up further, cupping her breast, his thumb grazing her hardened nipple.
She let out a little moan and it was just encouragement for him to keep doing it.
When the two of them came together, it was almost as if nothing else existed in the world. It was funny to him they could be at odds so much in their time together.
His lips found her neck, his tongue coming out to taste her silky skin.
She ground against him so he made quick work of losing his underwear and helping her out of hers.
She didn’t roll over so he continued to spoon her, pushing her top leg forward, his dick probing for entrance and being granted.
It felt just too damn good and he couldn’t figure out the reason for it.
Tori pushed back against him again, let out a little sigh and then he jerked back fast.
“Shit,” he shouted.
She jumped up startled. “What? You just woke me up from the best dream possible.”
He was running his hands across his face. She didn’t even know what he was doing.
“It wasn’t a dream,” he said.
She laughed. “It wasn’t? Then why did you stop?”
“Because I didn’t put a condom on,” he said. “I was half awake and it sounds as if you weren’t awake at all, which makes me feel even worse.”
“Oh stop,” she said. “I’d think we are at a point in our relationship that I’m not going to think you’re taking advantage of me.”
“Well, I thought that once before and you said it was a mistake, so maybe I’ve got PTSD.”
“I won’t get mad at you,” she said. “Though a tiny part wants to. I know you didn’t mean to say that.”
“It’s just the truth,” he said. “That did happen.”
She flopped back down on her side, then lifted and pulled her shirt off. “Stop talking, Hyde, and go back to what you were doing. And relax, I’m on the pill.”
His heart stopped hammering in his chest over those words.
Well, a lot of the words.
That she wasn’t mad.
And she was on birth control.
“How come I didn’t know that before?” he asked.
“It hasn’t come up and I don’t normally volunteer it. I like having it as a backup plan. I’m going to assume you’re clean...”
“I am,” he said. “Shana was the only person I didn’t wear a condom with since we’d been together so long. I swear.”
“I believe you,” she said. “Let’s finish what you started.”
He wasn’t going to ask twice.
He lay back on his side, got behind her where she’d already shifted her leg forward, then found her slick opening and slid right back in.
She reached for his hand and put it back on her breast, silently telling him what she needed.
“I can’t move much this way,” he said.
“You don’t need to,” she said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
He didn’t know what she meant, but then her hand moved down to the sound of the covers shifting and he realized she was touching herself.
She’d opened up a lot in the past few months.
She was no longer embarrassed over what she felt and wanted to feel more.
That might have been the best Christmas gift he could have gotten.
He moved his hips forward and back some, just a little bit, enough that told him any more would have him shooting inside of her immediately.
When her moans got louder and she was pressing back into him harder, he realized she was on the edge.
“Shit,” he said. “Don’t squeeze me like that.”
“I can’t help it,” she said. “I mean, I’m not trying, but it’s just happening.”
“Tell me you’re close,” he said. “Please.”
He was grinding his teeth and letting her get herself there.
The fact it felt so freaking good without the condom on, added to what she was doing, yeah, he didn’t have much control left.
“I am,” she said, her voice getting louder.
She lifted her leg a bit and he grabbed it with his hand and pushed it up higher, then was all but making them one with the way he was jerking up into her.
Her hand had fallen away and she was screeching out his name.
“That’s it,” he said. “Oh God.”
She was pulsing around him, he was squirting out so hard he felt completely drained, dropping her leg and his face getting buried in her neck.
“That was wonderful,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said. “It was. Didn’t mean to do it in your sleep.”
“I’m not complaining,” she said. “Anytime you want to wake me up that way, you can.”
“That sounds like a green light if I ever heard one,” he said.
“Flashing to get your attention,” she said, throwing back the covers. “But now I need to go to the bathroom. Can we snuggle some when I come back?”
It was the quiet way she’d asked. “We can do anything you want,” he said just as softly.